I've finally started up my blog!  I'll be keeping you all posted on my next year and a half or so adventure working at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center near Girdwood, AK and the Surfing Dairy Goat Farm in Maui. It's been quite a start as I packed all my things up (thanks to my best friends) and said all my goodbyes.  

I made it to Anchorage after being bumped a flight and delayed at midnight last Wednesday.  Luckily I didn't have to work the next day.  I thought the view out my window coming in was amazing but it was nothing like the Seward Highway on the way to the center.  Since I had my first three days off (just worked out that way with my scheduled days off and when I arrived) I had a hard time finding things to do after catching up on sleep and settling in.  I was anxious to get started and learn since it seemed like everyone else around me was working.  During those days I watched Kara feed the two baby musk oxen we're bottle raising at their 11 pm feeding and went to Girdwood with Erin (our head intern) to the ski resort for a porcupine presentation.  The musk ox babies are named after the mayors Walter Hickle (sp?) and J. Hammond.  They're so cute!!  I definitely don't mind their late night feedings.  We just recently put them on display so here Erin and I are moving them to their new enclosure.

Later in the day we picked up another new intern Claire from the airport, who we thought was coming in Monday.  Claire's from Hawaii and it was refreshing to have another newbie around to learn the ropes with.  Since Claire came in Erin thought it'd be easier to train us all together so I got to start interning a day earlier!  My first day we learned feedings, went on a behind the scenes tour, and worked on other misc. projects.  It was SO great.  The next couple days we were able to put a harness on Hershey (thanks to Claire's skills with horse training) and walk him around, he's one of our male reindeer.

There are so many amazing animals here it's hard to choose favorites. The bears are always so cool to watch and feed, I'm surprised how playful they are!  On an evening walk around the center the other night we saw JB (Joe Boxer, one of the brown bears) playing in the water with an old tire. The lynx kind of freak me out but they're so pretty and interesting to me.  Then there's Jewelie...the sweetest deer you'll ever meet.  One of my favorite things to do here so far is walk around the center in the evening after it's closed.  We also went on a nice bike ride (MT, Marcie, Claire, and I) to Moose Flats where we thought we saw a Moose further away and Blue Ice Trail.  The views here are so great, I can see how people fall in love and never come back.  The other night we got a moose calf who was bit pretty bad by a pack of dogs.  Mike MIller, the owner of the center, let us take control and patch him up as Claire sutured him!  She did an awesome job.  It was such a great experience.  The moose is standing and taking bottles so hopefully he continues to do well.  Finally yesterday Erin invited MT, Nikki, and I to come to Anchorage with her and Walter (one of the baby musk ox) to do an hour interview at the ABC studio.  I've never been in a studio like that before so it was cool to get the chance to go along for the ride. We even got to join her on T.V. in the last segment when she talked about the internship program at the center.  Till next time!!